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Khamenei’s fall exposes China’s military AI lag versus US, Beijing adviser warns
Zheng Yongnian cites precision strikes on Iran and earlier Venezuela raid to warn about risks posed by deep AI integration in US military
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China must speed up military applications of AI and deepen civil-military fusion to narrow its strategic gap with the United States, a leading Chinese political scientist and adviser to Beijing has said.
Citing US-Israeli precision strikes that eliminated Iran’s supreme leader, Zheng Yongnian warned that China risked repeating historical mistakes if it limited artificial intelligence (AI) mostly to civilian or entertainment uses and failed to convert frontier technologies into decisive hard power.
The killing of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei showcased how deeply AI had become embedded in US military operations, Zheng argued in an interview with Greater Bay Area Review, a social media account affiliated with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, where he serves as dean of the school of public policy.
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Zheng highlighted how American companies such as Palantir, Anthropic and Anduril – the “tech right” within the US military-industrial complex – drove intelligence gathering, data processing and operational execution, noting that they had become integral to how Washington projected military power.
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Iran’s Khamenei’s last public address, before he was killed by US-Israeli airstrikes
Iran’s Khamenei’s last public address, before he was killed by US-Israeli airstrikes
He also pointed to the US operation in Venezuela in January – which featured AI-driven targeting and drone swarms and led to the capture of then-leader Nicolas Maduro – as further evidence of this integrated tech-military edge in action.
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